Transcript Government Corruption and Reform

Period 6: 1865-1898
THE GILDED AGE, URBANIZATION, AND THE WEST
In a Nutshell
The transformation of the United States from an
agricultural to an increasingly industrialized and
urbanized society brought about significant
economic, political, diplomatic, social, environmental,
and cultural changes.
Key Concepts Part 1
A. The rise of big business in the United States encouraged
massive migrations and urbanization, sparked government
and popular efforts to reshape the U.S. economy and
environment, and renewed debates over U.S. national identity.
B. Large-scale production — accompanied by massive
technological change, expanding international
communication networks, and pro-growth government
policies — fueled the development of a “Gilded Age” marked
by an emphasis on consumption, marketing, and
business consolidation.
Key Concepts Part 1
C. As leaders of big business and their allies in
government aimed to create a unified industrialized
nation, they were challenged in different ways by
demographic issues, regional differences, and labor
movements.
D. Westward migration, new systems of farming and
transportation, and economic instability led to political
and popular conflicts.
Key Concepts Part 2
E. The emergence of an industrial culture in the United States led
to both greater opportunities for, and restrictions on,
immigrants, minorities, and women.
F. International and internal migrations increased both urban and
rural populations, but gender, racial, ethnic, religious, and
socioeconomic inequalities abounded, inspiring some
reformers to attempt to address these inequities.
G. As transcontinental railroads were completed, bringing
more settlers west, U.S. military actions, the destruction of
the buffalo, the confinement of American Indians to
reservations, and assimilationist policies reduced the number of
American Indians and threatened native culture and identity.
.
Key Concepts Part 3
H. The “Gilded Age” witnessed new cultural and
intellectual movements in tandem with political
debates over economic and social policies.
I. Gilded Age politics were intimately tied to big
business and focused nationally on economic issues —
tariffs, currency, corporate expansion, and laissezfaire economic policy — that engendered numerous
calls for reform.
J. New cultural and intellectual movements both
buttressed and challenged the social order of the
Gilded Age
1. The Industrial Revolution
Following the Civil War, government subsidies for
transportation and communication systems opened new
markets in North America, while technological
innovations and redesigned financial and
management structures such as monopolies sought
to maximize the exploitation of natural resources
and a growing labor force.
2. International Economic Expansion
Businesses and foreign policymakers increasingly looked
outside U.S. borders in an effort to gain greater
influence and control over markets and natural
resources in the Pacific, Asia, and Latin America.
3. Formation of Trusts and Monopolies
Business leaders consolidated
corporations into trusts and holding
companies and defended their resulting
status and privilege through theories such as
Social Darwinism.
a. laissez faire
• The principle that government should not
interfere in the workings of a free market
economy.
3. Formation of Trusts and Monopolies
b. Social Darwinism
• Philosophy that competition
leads to the betterment of
society through the survival of
the fittest.
• Social Darwinists are opposed
to regulating competition or
assisting the poor.
3. Formation of Trusts and Monopolies
c. J.P. Morgan
• Powerful financier and
banker who controlled
American finance.
• His dedication to
modernization transformed
American business.
3. Formation of Trusts and Monopolies
d. John D. Rockefeller
• Industrialist who amassed a
great fortune through the
Standard Oil Trust.
3. Formation of Trusts and Monopolies
e. Andrew Carnegie
• Scottish-born industrialist who made a fortune in steel.
3. Formation of Trusts and Monopolies
f. Cornelius Vanderbilt
• Made his fortune in the
railroad industry,
receiving much of the
land from government
subsidies.
• https://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=keRTBBY0
VIc
3. Formation of Trusts and Monopolies
g. horizontal integration
• Merging one or more companies of the same business
activity. Standard Oil used horizontal integration to limit
competition and increase profits.
h. vertical integration
• A single company brings together several activities used
in the process of creating a product, such as the
acquisition of raw materials, the manufacturing of the
product, and the marketing, selling, and distribution of
the product. Carnegie Steel used vertical integration to
increase profits.
3. Formation of Trusts and Monopolies
i. robber baron
• Derogatory term
that refers to the
industrialists and
bankers of the
late 1800s who
placed profits
over the public
interest.
3. Formation of Trusts and Monopolies
j. Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 1890
• Law that authorized the federal
government to break up any
business combination that was
“in restraint of trade.”
• Intended to break up
monopolies, the law was
instead used primarily against
labor unions.
4. The Distribution of Wealth
As cities grew substantially in both size
and in number, some segments of American
society enjoyed lives of extravagant
“conspicuous consumption,” while many
others lived in relative poverty.
a. conspicuous consumption
• Term that refers to how people spend money in
excess of what is necessary to fulfill their needs.
People openly consume products they don’t need in
order to gain social status.
4. The Distribution of Wealth
b. Gilded Age
• Term coined by Mark Twain that refers to
the celebration of wealth and conspicuous
consumption that became part of American
culture in the late 1800s.
c. Panic of 1893
• Deep economic depression caused by high
protective tariffs and a return to the gold
standard.
5. The American Labor Movement
The industrial workforce expanded through migration
across national borders and internal migration, leading to
a more diverse workforce, lower wages, and an
increase in child labor. Labor and management battled
for control over wages and working conditions, with
workers organizing local and national unions and/or
directly confronting corporate power.
5. The American Labor Movement
a. Knights of Labor, 1869
• Nationwide labor union that was open to all workers. The
union reached its peak in 1886 before beginning a decline
in membership.
b. Great Railroad Strike of 1877
• Strike triggered by wage cuts for railroad workers that
spread nationwide. President Rutherford Hayes ordered
U.S. troops to end the strike.
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877
“Scabs”
5. The American Labor Movement
c. Haymarket Square 1886
• After police fired into a crowd of 100,000 protesting
workers in Chicago, the workers met and rallied in
Haymarket Square to protest police brutality.
• A bomb exploded, killing or injuring many of the police,
promoting promoted anti-union and anti-immigrant
feelings.
5. The American Labor Movement
d. Homestead Strike, 1892
• Strike at a Carnegie's steel plant 1892.
• Company officials called 300 armed Pinkerton detectives
in July to stop strikers who were angry over pay cuts.
• Armed strikers forced them to surrender in a battle that
killed 10 people and left 60 wounded.
5. The American Labor Movement
e. Pullman Strike, 1894
• Due to poor wages for
Pullman workers and a
shut down of western
railroads, workers for
the Pullman Palace
Car Company in
Chicago went on
strike.
5. The American Labor Movement
f. Eugene Debs
• Head of the American Railway Union and
leader of the Pullman strike, which led to
his imprisonment for ignoring a federal
court injunction to stop striking.
• While in prison, he became a socialist
and ran for president five times as the
Socialist Party’s candidate for president.
5. The American Labor Movement
g. American Federation of Labor (AFL),
1886
• Nationwide labor union that by the
1890s was open only to skilled, white
workers. The AFL was known as a
“bread and butter” union because it
sought only to achieve higher wages,
minimize hours, and improve working
conditions rather than transform
American society.
5. The American Labor Movement
h. Samuel Gompers
• Cigar maker who founded the American
Federation of Labor.
i. Mother Jones
• Nickname for Mary Harris Jones, an IrishAmerican woman who became a prominent
labor organizer. She led several significant
strikes and cofounded the radical Industrial
Workers of the World in 1905.
6. The Southern Economy
Despite the industrialization of some segments of the
southern economy, a change promoted by southern leaders
who called for a “New South,” agrarian sharecropping, and
tenant farming systems continued to dominate the region.
a. The New South
• Term that was used by southerners who wanted to
promote economic changes in the South. The changes
included industrialization, diversification of crops, and
integration with the national economy.
6. The Southern Economy
b. crop-lien system (sharecropping, tenant farming)
• A system of credit used by cotton farmers in the South.
Sharecroppers who did not own the land they worked
obtained supplies and food on credit from local
merchants.
• They held a lien on the cotton crop and the merchants
and landowners were the first ones paid from its sale.
What was left over went to the farmer
7. The Struggle for Control of Land and Resources
Government agencies and conservationist organizations
contended with corporate interests about the extension of
public control over natural resources, including land and
water. Business interests battled conservationists as
the latter sought to protect sections of unspoiled
wilderness through the establishment of national
parks and other conservationist and preservationist
measures.
7. The Struggle for Control of Land and Resources
a. Sierra Club, 1892
• Grassroots environmental organization founded in San
Francisco by the conservationist John Muir.
b. Department of the Interior
• Executive department of the U.S. government that dealt
with land and natural resource management, American
Indian affairs, wildlife conservation, and territorial affairs.
8. Farmers’ Organizations
Farmers adapted to the new realities of
mechanized agriculture and
dependence on the evolving railroad
system by creating local and regional
organizations that sought to resist
corporate control of agricultural markets.
a. Grange, 1867
• Organization that brought farmers
together to promote their economic and
political interests.
8. Farmers’ Organizations
b. Granger Laws
• Laws passed by mid-western states in the late 1860s and
early 1870s to help farmers, primarily by regulating
railroads.
c. Farmers’ Alliance
• Farmer’s organization in the 1870s and 1880s that
supported government regulation of the railroad,
establishment of an income tax, and cheap money
(inflation) to help farmers.
9. The Populist Movement
The growth of corporate power in agriculture and
economic instability in the farming sector inspired
activists to create the People’s (Populist) Party, which
called for political reform and a stronger governmental
role in the American economic system.
a. People’s (Populist) Party, 1891
• Political party created by farmers (primarily in the South
and Midwest) who had been hurt by debt, low prices for
their crops, and railroad monopolies.
What is the message of the cartoon?
What type of bias do you sense?
9. The Populist Movement
b. Omaha Platform, 1892
• The political platform of the Populist Party in the election
of 1892.
• The platform called for the free coinage of silver, the
abolition of national banks, a graduated income tax,
direct election of Senators, civil service reform, a working
day of eight hours and government control of all
railroads, telegraphs, and telephones.
9. The Populist Movement
c. gold standard
• Monetary system in which currency is based upon a fixed
quantity of gold. Debtors are often hurt by the higher
interest rates and the deflationary pressure associated
with the gold standard.
d. free silver
• A central cause of the Populist movement. Populists
favored the "free coinage of silver" to inflate the American
economy and allow farmers to more easily pay debts.
9. The Populist Movement
e. William Jennings Bryan, 1896
• U.S. representative from Kansas who
became the nominee of both the
Democratic and Populist Parties in
1896 after his famous “Cross of Gold”
speech.
• Bryan campaigned against the gold
standard, calling for the free coinage
of silver.
10. Immigration and Migration
Increased migrations from Asia and from southern
and eastern Europe, as well as African American
migrations within and out of the South, accompanied
the mass movement of people into the nation’s cities and
the rural and boomtown areas of the West.
10. Immigration and Migration
a. Old Immigrants
• Immigrants from northern and western Europe who
made up most of the immigration to the United States
before the 1890s.
b. New Immigrants
• Immigrants who came primarily from southern and
eastern Europe and began to arrive in the United States
during the 1890s. New Immigrants generally did not
assimilate as well as Old Immigrants.
What type of
symbolism do
you see in this
cartoon?
What is the
overall message?
10. Immigration and Migration
c. Ellis Island
• Island in New York Harbor that served as the inspection
station for millions of immigrants coming the United
States from 1892 to 1954.
d. assimilation
• Process by which immigrant and minority groups were
absorbed into the dominant culture of a society.
Statue of Liberty, 1876
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to
breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your
teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempesttossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden
door!"
-Emma Lazarus
11. Social and Cultural Diversity
Immigrants sought both to “Americanize” and to
maintain their unique identities; along with others,
such as some African Americans and women, they were
able to take advantage of new career opportunities even in
the face of widespread social prejudices.
“Little Italy” in
New York City
Does this
demonstrate
assimilation?
12. The Urbanization of America
Cities dramatically reflected divided social conditions
among classes, races, ethnicities, and cultures, but
presented economic opportunities as factories and new
businesses proliferated.
Urban Growth 1870-1900
Dumbbell Tenements
Jacob Riis- “How the Other
Half Lives”
13. Urban Politics, Society, and Culture
In a urban atmosphere where the access to power was
unequally distributed, political machines provided
social services in exchange for political support,
settlement houses helped immigrants adapt to the
new language and customs, and women’s clubs and selfhelp groups targeted intellectual development and social
and political reform.
13. Urban Politics, Society, and Culture
a. National American Woman Suffrage Association
(NAWSA), 1869
• Organization led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B.
Anthony that fought for women’s suffrage, equal rights for
women, and the right for women to join labor unions.
Accepted only women as members.
b. American Women Suffrage Association (AWSA), 1869
• Organization led by Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howard
that fought only for women’s suffrage. Accepted men as
members.
13. Urban Politics, Society, and Culture
c. Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), 1874
• Women’s organization that opposed alcoholic beverages
and supported reforms such as women’s suffrage.
d. Jane Addams
• Founded a settlement house (Hull House) in Chicago in
1889 that offered practical help and material aide to
immigrants. Widely regarded as the greatest American
woman of the early 1900s. She was awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1931.
Temperance=Predecessor of Prohibition
Why were women often at the forefront
of the temperance movement?
Jane Addams’ Hull House
14. Migration to the American West
Post–Civil War migration to the American West,
encouraged by economic opportunities and government
policies, caused the federal government to violate
treaties with American Indian nations in order to
expand the amount of land available to settlers.
a. railroad subsidies
• Government grants of land or money to railroad
companies to build railroads in the West.
14. Migration to the American West
b. Frederick Jackson Tuner
• Historian who argued that cheap, abundant land and the
settlement of the American West were the dominant
factors in creating American democracy and shaping the
national character.
15. The Conquest of the West
The competition for land in the West among white
settlers, Indians, and Mexican Americans led to an
increase in violent conflict. The U.S. government
generally responded to American Indian resistance with
military force, eventually dispersing tribes onto small
reservations and hoping to end American Indian
tribal identities through assimilation.
15. The Conquest of the West
a. Crazy Horse
• Lakota leader who resisted white movement into the
Black Hills and fought at the Battle of Little Big Horn.
Killed by U.S. soldiers in 1877.
b. Sitting Bull
• Lakota holy man who led a resistance against U.S.
government policies toward Indians. His visions led to
the battle of Little Big Horn. Killed in the massacre at
Wounded Knee in 1890.
15. The Conquest of the West
c. Great Sioux War, 1876-1881
• War between the U.S. army and the tribes (Lakota,
Cheyenne, and Arapaho) that took part in the Battle of
the Little Big Horn.
• The war ended in 1881 with the surrender of Sitting Bull.
15. The Conquest of the West
d. Little Big Horn, 1876
• River in Montana where George Custer and the U.S.
cavalry attacked an Indian encampment. Most of Custer’s
force died in the battle
15. The Conquest of the West
e. Chief Joseph
• Nez Perce chief in the Northwest who led his tribe in an
attempt to escape to Canada in 1877.
• U.S. troops forced him to surrender. He and his people
were exiled to a reservation.
15. The Conquest of the West
f. Dawes Severalty Act, 1887
• Law that intended to break up Indian reservations into
individual farms and turn American Indians into
homesteaders.
• Designed to end common ownership of the land.
• Surplus lands were sold to raise money for Indian
education.
15. The Conquest of the West
g. Ghost Dance
• Indian belief that centered on a ritual dance that would
bring about an Indian messiah who would banish the
whites, bring back the buffalo, and restore land to the
Indians.
15. The Conquest of the West
h. Massacre at Wounded Knee, 1890
• Last major encounter between Indians and the U.S. army.
• The Lakota Indians were overpowered by U.S. troops and
roughly 300 Lakota died.
16. Government Corruption and Reform
Corruption in government — especially as it related to
big business — energized the public to demand increased
popular control and reform of local, state, and national
governments, ranging from minor changes to major
overhauls of the capitalist system.
a. patronage (spoils system)
• The practice of granting government appointments to
friends, political supporters, and party loyalists.
16. Government Corruption and Reform
b. Crédit Mobilier
• Company created to build the Union Pacific Railroad.
• In 1872 it was discovered that Crédit Mobilier bribed
congressmen to gain federal subsidies for the
construction of the railroad.
16. Government Corruption and Reform
c. Boss Tweed (Tammany Hall)
• Leader of the corrupt political machine that controlled
New York.
16. Government Corruption and Reform
f. Pendleton Act, 1883
• Law that created the Civil Service Commission and
instituted the merit system for federal hiring and jobs.
g. Interstate Commerce Act, 1887
• The first federal regulatory agency. Established to
regulate railroads.
16. Government Corruption and Reform
h. Australian (secret) ballot
• Election ballot printed by the government rather than
political parties that was marked privately by voters.
• Most states had moved to the secret ballot by the 1880s
with Kentucky the last state to adopt a secret ballot in
1891.
16. Government Corruption and Reform
i. initiative and referendum
• A state-level method of direct legislation that gave voters
a chance to introduce, approve or disapprove proposed
legislation or proposed constitutional amendments.
16. Government Corruption and Reform
j. socialism
• System of government that provides for more government
regulation of business and government ownership of
some businesses.
17. Discrimination and Segregation
Increasingly prominent racist and nativist theories,
along with Supreme Court decisions such as Plessy v.
Ferguson, were used to justify violence, as well as local
and national policies of discrimination and segregation.
17. Discrimination and Segregation
a. Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882
• Law that prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the
United States.
17. Discrimination and
Segregation
b. American Protective
Association, 1887
• Organization created
by American nativists
that campaigned for
laws to restrict
immigration.
17. Discrimination and Segregation
c. Jim Crow Laws
• State and local laws designed to enforce segregation of
blacks from whites.
d. grandfather clause
• Method of denying African Americans the right to vote by
not letting anyone vote whose grandfather had not voted.
17. Discrimination and Segregation
e. Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896
• Supreme Court decision that
upheld a Louisiana law requiring
the racial segregation of railroad
facilities on the grounds that
“separate but equal” facilities were
constitutional under the
Fourteenth Amendment.
18. American Social and Economic Theory
Cultural and intellectual arguments justified the
success of those at the top of the socioeconomic
structure as both appropriate and inevitable, even as some
leaders argued that the wealthy had some obligation to
help the less fortunate. A number of critics challenged
the dominant corporate ethic in the United States and
sometimes capitalism itself, offering alternate visions of
the good society through utopianism and the Social
Gospel.
18. American Social and Economic Theory
a. Henry George
• Economic reformer whose book, Progress and Poverty
(1879), advocated solving problems of economic
inequality by a single tax on the value of unused land
b. Edward Bellamy
• Author of Looking Backward (1888), a utopian novel that
described the world of the future. According to Bellamy,
the world in 2000 would be based on a new social order in
which poverty and corrupt politics were unknown and
cooperation had replaced competition.
18. American Social and Economic Theory
c. Gospel of Wealth
• Andrew Carnegie’s idea that the people who possess great
wealth had an obligation to use their wealth for the public
good.
d. Social Gospel
• Religious doctrine preached by those who believed that
Christian churches should directly address economic and
social problems.
19. Activists for Equal Rights
Challenging their prescribed “place,” women and
African American activists articulated alternative
visions of political, social, and economic equality.
19. Activists for Equal Rights
a. Booker T. Washington
• Former slave who became an educator and
founded Tuskegee Institute to provide
training in agriculture and crafts for African
American students.
b. Atlanta Compromise, 1895
• Speech made by Booker T Washington in
which he urged African Americans to accept
disenfranchisement and segregation for the
time being, working for economic
advancement instead.
19. Activists for Equal Rights
c. Ida Wells-Barnett
• African American civil rights
activist who championed antilynching legislation.
http://video.pbs.org/video/236
5085759/